Fighting but Broken
by faithandfamily1st
Summary: A group of One-shots surrounding a female Grayson, some are connected and some are Au's. *Updated irregularly
1. Darkest AU

"Sorry, no powers for you to turn off." Nightwing sang. Artemis's eyes widened in surprise as Nightwing wrapped her legs around her throat and slammed her against the ground. So they were playing it this way then. Rolling to the side she pulled the trigger from her belt. Mentally she apologized before pressing down, electricity lit around the collar shocking Nightwing. A high pitched scream emitted from the girl as she fell to her knees. Artemis released the trigger, masking her concern she looked over at the hero. She was on her hands and knees and barely holding back a full panic attack. Artemis could just make out her whispering. "He's not here." Like a mantra. Damn, she had hoped that Rachel was better now.

Artemis stood as Aqualad began issuing orders to the rest of the group. "What about these two?" She asked. Looking down at Connor and Rachel. "As hostages here they have value. " Kaldur replied. "But Nightwing is an ordinary human and is under protection by an ally until he decides he wants her back." Artemis didn't look down at her friend but she could tell that Rachel had stopped breathing. "And Superboy is a human-kryptonian hybrid. Neither of which are of interest to our partner. " Aqualad finished. Artemis noticed he was studying Nightwing carefully. Artemis looked down and saw the girl was trembling.

Slowly the hero got to her feet. "Aqualad. She said. Her voice was deadly calm. "You will not be leaving here with any of my team." Tigress reached to her belt to grab her trigger, but stopped as Aqualad put up a hand. The room was silent as Kaldur approached Nightwing. "And how?" He asked as he came to a stop in front of the teen. Are you going to stop me?" Out of nowhere a fist was driven into Nightwing's gut. An airless gasp was heard as Nightwing doubled over, only to recover and swing her foot around into the back of Aqualad's knee.. The fight made two more moves before Nightwing's collar lit up once more. This time Artemis held it down until she had passed out.

Aqualad then turned to the twins. "Nightwing will not stay down long, get them to the ship. The Twins and Icicle Jr left, leaving the only Aqualad and Tigress with the two heroes. Aqualad kneeled down next to Nightwing and took her pulse. "She should be fine." He said quietly to Artemis. The archer let out a breath nodded in relief.

"She's not doing well, though. Her moves were sluggish. I don't think she's sleeping. Call Wally later and let him know." Kaldur continued. Artemis nodded once as an affirmative. Aqualad stood and headed for the hanger. Tigress followed, neither looked back.

Nightwing woke up a moment later. She launched to her feet screaming in frustration. Turning she knelt next to her teammate "Superboy, get up." She said shaking the hero roughly. "We have to get out of here, they're going to blow the place." The clone snapped awake. "Get Wolf." She demanded. The clone nodded and got to his feet. Nightwing ran to the computer and checked for life signs. They were none other than her, Superboy, and Wolf. She ran for the hanger.

She saw a glow start to come from the device. "Superboy!" She screamed. She flipped up onto the Superbike and looked over her shoulder, thankfully she saw Connor and Wolf running toward her. "Hurry." She yelled. The two clambered aboard and Nightwing took off. They were around five hundred yards away when it blew. The shock sent Nightwing's head smashing into the bike and knocked her out cold.

As soon as she woke up Rachel regretted it, she was dizzy and her chest hurt like nothing else. But those were only the minor things. She hoped the plan had worked and everyone had gotten out safely.

Wally was going to be pissed. She had blown up the cave, sacrificed the only home of many teammates for a mission. Just like Batman would have. Without her permission a choked sob filled her throat.

A moment later there was a hand placed gently on her shoulder. "Rachel," A voice asked. "Can you open your eyes?" Rachel obliged, only to squeeze them back shut to block out the bright glare from the fluorescent lights. Slowly she opened her eyes again. Above her stood Black Canary.

"Hi." She mumbled to the other hero. Rachel knew she didn't have time for Dinah to start giving her a psyche evaluation so she stood up and began walking toward the door. "Where do you think you're going?" Dinah demanded in her caring mama bird way.

"Wally." Rachel responded. "He's going to want to know what happened, he's been bent on making sure no one else…" She trailed off, looking helplessly at the woman who had become like a mother to her.

Rachel and Kaldur knew when they had started this plan that there were going to be sacrifices, the first was to distance themselves from the people who would be able to figure out something was going on. This led Rachel to slyly push Bruce over the edge to a full blown fight that ended with her leaving Wayne Manor. The sixteen year old settled in Blüdhaven, a place not many heroes would wander.

But that decision paved the way for Jason's death, and Bruce making Tim the next Robin, something that Rachel felt true resentment for.

The next step was for Rachel to remove herself from being in close contact with other heroes. She took on some of Bruce's old habits, brooding and anger. She spent much more time convincing herself that her parents death was her fault, using it to fuel her need to stay away from people, they always ended up dead.

Rachel had been telling herself this for so long she started to actually believe it. That was when Kaldur told Wally and Red Arrow about the plan.

Kaldur had began to worry that in preparing to destroy the Light as they were, Rachel, who was now Nightwing, was becoming self destructive in order to keep herself from being in contact with other people. Red Arrow was worried, but he was already on a bad path addicted to drugs and spending his time around Cheshire, this worried Kaldur but the Atlantean hoped this news about the girl who Roy considered his little sister would shake him out of his funk. Sadly he was mistaken, Roy remained as terrible as ever. Kaldur doubted he even remembered the conversation.

Wally though, he came immediately. At the sight of his best friend, Wally realized just how bad things were, Rachel wasn't caring for herself past the point to be efficient for her mission. All the mischievous joy that she had had only a year ago was completely gone, she had become Blüdhaven's Batman. It wasn't long until Wally agreed to his own mission with Kaldur, making sure Nightwing didn't do something reckless and get herself killed. A month later Kaldur defected and joined Black Manta, all part of the plan.

Wally had left the hero business after that going to college with Artemis, he provided a place for Rachel to escape the stress of being a hero and her dark lonely place in Blüdhaven. It worked for around two years, then Rachel needed help. She needed Artemis to fake her death and go undercover with Kaldur.

Wally was needless to say, furious about this. It seemed everyone he knew were falling apart. Roy, Kaldur, even Barry was running with Bart now. But Rachel insisted. She said she'd go herself, but someone working closely with Manta would recognize her in a heartbeat. She didn't elaborate but Artemis seemed to know who she was referring to. After that he was angry with her, he knew what his promise to Kaldur was and kept it, but only to a minimal scale. He didn't seem to notice that Rachel was on a downward spiral once more.

Rachel was shaking when she entered the Hall of Justice. She quickly headed for the small break room and made a cup of steaming hot coffee. She returned to the room and sat on one of the chairs, but quickly stood up, jarring her ribs when she realized it was the same one she had sat on the day that they first came into the hall, and Young Justice was born. Instead she sat at the table, the Zeta tube was right near it. Around six minutes later the computer announced, " _Recognized,_ _Kid Flash B-03."_ Wally was here. There was no greeting, Rachel didn't even bother to look up from her cup. Wally was pissed.

"What happened." He growled. Rachel sat down her cup.

Rachel was shaking slightly. "It was necessary." She defended weakly.

"It better have been." Wally said. He had no idea what to think, even after Rachel had begun to pick up some of Batman's habits, he had never thought she would go to such lengths for a mission. "Spill." He said, hoping that there was some reason behind this that would justify her actions. Nightwing was not someone he knew anymore, this person in front of him wasn't the cheerful laughing hacker he had known. This was a dangerous vigilante.

"Aqualad needed to find a way to help us rescue Lagoon-boy. He had already injected a microscopic tag into Lagaan's bloodstream, and he used the raid on the cave to pass essential intel." She paused and placed a device on the table. "A flash drive with, among other things, tracking software that can locate the tag." Rachel explained. Her voice was devoid of emotion. She showed the device to Wally and met his green eyes with her masked ones.

"Like that was all he did." Wally hissed. As he crossed his arms. The picture from that evening's national news showing the burning rubble of what used to be the team's base made a reappearance in his mind.

"Wally, he had to make it look good, he put inhibitor collars on us, but he knew I'd get us out of them." She said. Trying to justify Kaldur's actions. She stood, knowing at this rate she'd eventually have to dodge a punch from Wally.

"He took three more hostages, members of your team!" Wally shouted, he couldn't believe this. Rachel let her people be captured, Kaldur had taken kids to give to the Light. He was worried that Kaldur might have actually switched allegiances. The old Kaldur would have never done that.

"We'll rescue them when we rescue Lagaan." Rachel cried. "Kaldur was going to blow up the cave, he had to get as many people out as possible without it being suspicious. The Light's partner has no interest in a clone, and their own evaluation of me places me as unstable and dangerous. I'm not supposed to be harmed until Deathstroke gives the word." Rachel stopped the whites of her mask widening as she clapped a hand over her mouth, she had said too much. Wally was frozen.

"Deathstroke." He breathed. "What does he have to do with you?" Wally watched as Rachel shook her head and sat back down pulling off her mask to reveal watery blue eyes. She choked on a sob. Wally was scared. What did that mercenary have to do with Rachel. He came and kneeled in front of her. "Tell me Rachel." He whispered.

"Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson, made his first appearance in 2013, I was fifteen. Kaldur was still in charge of the team and you guys didn't hear from me for around five months." Wally nodded, he remembered that.

"I wasn't undercover overseas." Rachel admitted. "I was blackmailed by Slade, he knew who Bruce and I were, and we had just taken in Jason, who wasn't trained well enough to fend off Slade, if he went after him. The deal was that I become his apprentice, I would call him Master and do whatever he told me to. I was his pet." Rachel spat. Wally had never seen Rachel act like this.

"He took me out of the country, I was with him for three months. He caused enough damage that I was in therapy for the next two years. It was while I was with him that I discovered our need to have an operative inside the Light. Wally." Rachel paused for a moment.

"Deathstroke is the most dangerous man I've ever met. He's not insane, he has no known weakness, and he can manipulate anyone. I was only with him for three months and I had to have therapy for two years, with Martian Manhunter, and Canary. I'm not even over it now. Artemis found out when Batman came to her, he was worried. I was back on the team and no one knew what happened, I was lethal, I knew how to kill a man from Batman, He taught me so I would never go to that length, but now I was employing them.

Rachel stopped, and threw her arms around Wally, sobbing. Wally froze, how had he not noticed just how broken his little sister was.

"Wally, I killed someone!" Rachel screamed, beating her hand on his chest. "You should hate me! Why don't you hate me?" She was having a full on panic attack now, her breaths were quick and short and she was a mess. "Rachel, I would never, ever hate you. We're family, you, me, Kal, and Roy, the first four, I don't hate you, just like I don't hate Kaldur, he's had to kill people to keep his cover, you were mentally distraught." He paused a moment before adding. "Heavy on the dis." A choked laugh was the response.

Wally stood pulling Nightwing up from the place on the floor and took her over to the seating area. Sitting her down on the loveseat he sat facing her. "Finish telling me Rikki, no more secrets." She nodded and wrapped her arms around herself before speaking.

"He was a robber," She whispered. "His voice sounded just Like Slade's. I freaked and killed him. That was how Artemis found out, she was with me and watched me kill him. I terrified her, Batman explained what happened and she was someone my own age who actually understood what I was going through, with her help I was able to hide what happened from the team, it was her idea to use the failsafe as an excuse for therapy."

Wally froze a bit, all those hours of therapy that everyone had thought was for the failsafe exercise was for a completely different trauma. He thought back that year, He remembered how quiet she had gotten and her aversion to contact.

That was also the point she got super close to Artemis, they became best friends. Shared looks and arriving at the same time from Gotham. Wally found out later that Artemis went to Gotham Academy, Rachel's school at the time, and had discovered her identity because of Robin's wordplay.

"So Batman made Artemis your caretaker, she had to make sure you didn't do anything drastic." Wally realized. He looked at Rachel for confirmation. She nodded.

"I was the youngest on the team, it made sense that I would be the most upset about the situation we were thrust into." She had calmed down considerably, She knew her face was probably a mess, but she had to pull herself together, she had to be brave. She stood from her place next to Wally. "But that doesn't matter anymore."

She put her mask back on and walked over to a computer. She plugged in the flash drive and watched the lengths of information cover the screen. Her jaw dropped. "Wally," She breathed. "Kaldur did it, he's in."


	2. There has to be a Spy

**A/N: Hello, thank you so much for the reviews. I threw together a little bit more and will continue to try and write some more of these. I hope y'all enjoy!**

The funeral was a quick one on land. A simple goodbye to a teammate. The true burial would happen in Atlantis, and all would grieve for the warrior who had fought so bravely. Tula would always be remembered.

Robin watched as her team bid a final farewell to Aqualass. She was the last in line to go. Cautiously she approached the casket weaved from seaweed and looked down at the body of her teammate. "I'm sorry Tula." She whispered. "You had such a wonderful life ahead of you. But I guess fate wasn't with you this time."

She laughed a bit. "Though fate seems to like to deal terrible hands to the heroes eh? You were killed, half of us have Criminal relatives. I mean just look at me! Trained from birth to be an acrobat that was in reality training for the Court of Owls, then Deathstroke who has his mind set on making me his apprentice. We don't really have fate on our side do we?"

Robin paused fiddling with a loose string on her dress before continuing. "I don't remember much about my parents, it all seems to be fading away, but one thing I do remember was my mom sitting with me and telling me about heaven, and Tula, I hope to God you got there, because you deserve it more than anyone." Robin's throat suddenly felt choked as she turned and ran from the small room and the body of her friend.

"Kaldur." Robin called after the team's leader as she ran down the hallway to catch up with him. She watched sadly as he paused and turned toward her. "Yes, Robin?" He asked his voice was shaking. Robin felt her heart break. This was her fault, if she had been better, faster, stronger.

"I'm Sorry." She whispered. "It was my fault." Robin said hoarsely as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Tula, you loved her and I got her killed. I'm sorry." The Atlantian came forward and knelt next to the little bird.

"Robin." He said softly as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I cannot blame you for the actions of a gun that you had no control over. We are heroes and danger lies in our path, death is always waiting to pounce. True we must be vigilant, but I cannot expect that even our most experienced member to have been able to stop him with a broken arm and gunshot wound herself."

Robin looked away but Kaldur grabbed her chin gently making the teen look at him. "Tula gave her own life to save you, I can only ask that you do not waste that sacrifice by blaming yourself."

Robin nodded as tears began streaming from her mask. Kaldur was in so much pain, why should he be the one comforting her? Still she threw her arms around Kaldur and cried. Desperate for some kind of comfort. She had never lost a comrade before, not like this.

Kaldur held the young bird gently, allowing a few tears of his own to escape as she sobbed into his shoulder. He knew she was remembering the exercise, how she had lost everyone. That fear had never left and the bird became withdrawn and fragile, even more so after her return from the undercover mission Batman had sent her on overseas earlier that year. Slowly the sobs resided and deep breathing took it's place, she had finally fallen asleep.

Aqualad scooped up the girl. It was hard to believe she was fifteen now, she still seemed so young. Glancing down at the teens face all he could seem to see was the face of the cheerful ten year old her had met half a decade ago.

After Alerting Batman, Kaldur carried Robin to her room and laid her down on the bed before leaving softly closing the door behind them. It wasn't until he got to his own room that he allowed his own tears to truly break free, and he cried silently through the night.

* * *

"We need someone on the inside." She announced. It had been two months, Kaldur had had his time to grieve and so had she. It was time to make Tula's death worth something. "The Light has some sort of plan and we need to know what it is." She glanced over at her partner. They were sitting on a ledge on a team mission overlooking as Batgirl led a group inside the warehouse, they were on backup which left some time to talk.

"I agree. I have been meaning to approach you about this Robin. With the discovery of Black Manta as my father and the death of Tula still so fresh it would make sense for me to do it." Kaldur noted. Robin was surprised, she knew Kaldur was intelligent but she had expected a fight. After all who went willingly into the jaws of the beast, dangling between safety and the belly.

"You do understand what this will mean to us? no one else can know and when the truth does come out no one will see us the same again. There's no going back from this path." She warned, she needed to make sure he understood the consequences of this mission. Kaldur nodded. "I believe we should continue this elsewhere at a later date though." Robin nodded and focused back on the warehouse.

* * *

"We'll need to start by distancing ourselves. Spend less time with the team, gradually. More anger needs to be involved, act like each thug you take down was responsible for Tula. You want them to pay. But slowly make this approach, and you can't kill though, not until we're completely ready." Robin instructed as she placed a file on the table next to Kaldur.

The two had been in the old paper file rooms for a couple of hours after Robin turned off the surveillance cameras in the area. "I will be beginning to distance myself from Batman and Canary. They would be the first to recognize I had something going on. You should do the same with Aquaman."

Kaldur nodded and turned back to the file he had been studying. All of them were behavior files on defected heroes who went bad. "My hope is that within the next nine months I'm on my own in Bludhaven and you're ready. But for now we play this by ear, it may need to be earlier in order to make it seem real." Robin finished. She looked concerned over at Kaldur who was pouring over the files. "Just stay whelmed okay?"


	3. Court of Owls AU

**Hello Everybody!**

 **Who out there is stressed because it's the second day of finals week and you really shout be studying, but while you were digging through your documents searching for some notes you stumble across a little plot bunny half finished, change all the (He's to She's and His to Her and Boy to Girl because you want it to fit in your only fanfiction) Then proceed** **to waste an hour trying to learn a song on your guitar and finally get the guts to post your story?**

 **If not welcome to my life!**

 **Anyway a little background...**

 **Rachel Grayson's parents were killed when she was five, she was taken by her Great Grandfather and trained to be a Talon, somehow she was rescued by everyones favorite hero Daddy!Bats and Dami/Nightwing and is now living in Wayne Manor. Also this is not connected to the other two chapters I posted. Thanks for reading!**

Damian studied the small girl that his father had brought home. Rachel Grayson was dangerous, he decided. The girl had short but shaggy black hair and sapphire blue eyes, and she was small. To small. And she moved to efficiently. The small girl, who, Bruce insisted was now nine years old but looked closer to seven was deadly. Even Damian who had lived with the league of assassins for the majority of his childhood maintained his humanity. This thing Bruce had brought home was no child.

Damian had heard of the Court of Owls, they took children and turned them into animals, reducing them to instinct. The Court then established themselves as the Alpha's and ordered their talons to kill whomever displeased them. Rachel was well known in the criminal underworld as Gheară the Gray son of Gotham.

The girl was currently watching Bruce as if confused by the man's behavior. Damian wasn't surprised, when he first arrived at age ten to live with his father he had not understood why the man had sat down in the morning with a cup of coffee and did nothing. Later when he had confronted his Father about the useless activity he had explained to him that he used this time to criticize his actions and to meditate upon them so that he might learn from his mistakes. It was a skill that Damien now used as well.

Bruce was of course aware of his eldest son's views, in fact it was what he was pondering on this morning. As he sipped his black coffee (He wasn't called the Dark Knight for nothing) he wondered how on earth he could Get Damian to accept Rachel and begin to help the child become a little girl again. Or as Damien had put it, "human".

Bruce was also aware that Rachel was fascinated by him, a normal man who went out every night to fight crime. Which, honestly, was probably why she hadn't killed him when the Elders demanded it. Respect. Right now that probably was all that drove Rachel to not give into her killing tendencies. Bruce hoped he'd be able to help Rachel become Ella again, unfortunately that meant reopening wounds. Specifically the death of the Graysons.

Rachel couldn't understand it. it being the man sitting in front of her drinking something as he read foreign words off a paper. He and his son had been a source of wonderment for her, a light in the darkness of the nest. She knew that Nightwing or rather Damian didn't trust her, but who would? Despite what Bruce thought she knew that killing people was wrong and that what she was made to do while living with her Great Grandfather was terrible. It didn't change the fact she had done them.

Rachel was quite aware of all that was going around, and she was tempted to ask Bruce what he was doing and to try and understand how the Batman and his partner Nightwing worked but she knew her words would come out in a tangled mash of English, and Romanian with some French, and she wouldn't be understood. So she instead she began to study the food the old man who Bruce had called Alfred had placed on the table.

There was some yellow substance that resembled rubber, meat, and round bread that was warm and sweet smelling. Nothing looked familiar. Rachel huffed and hopped down from her chair intent on finding something edible to eat, but froze when she felt eyes feeling drilling into the back of her head..

"Where are you going?" Damian asked. Rachel just stared at him daring the man to try and stop her from leaving. She exited the room and headed to where she had seen the kitchen when she had explored the night before in order to familiarize herself with the layout.

Alfred was washing dishes when Rachel entered the room. And Because he had lived with masters of stealth ever since Bruce had returned and become Batman he knew the newest addition to the Wayne household had entered. He pretended to ignore the tiny figure as she silently and nimbly jumped up on the counter and began looking in the cupboards. After a few moments Alfred decided to announce his awareness to Rachel's presence.

"Can I help you Miss Rachel?" he asked looking over at the girl. Rachel barely seemed surprised she shook her head and continued looking through the cupboards. A moment later a grin covered the girl's face as she pulled a box of cereal from the cupboard triumphantly. Giving a short nod to Alfred she left the room to, Alfred assumed go back to the dining room. Sighing at the strange child's antics Alfred returned to his task.

Rachel returned to the dining room proud of her success in discovering edible food. He ignored to looks that Damian and Bruce gave her as she sat back down and began to eat the dry pieces of breakfast food. She looked up in surprise when a large hand took away the box. She didn't understand, she had scavenged the food. Like she was supposed to. Maybe Bruce wanted her to fight him for it? Looking up at the man who had saved her from her grandfather, confusion painted her face.

"Rachel." Bruce explained. "You can't only eat cereal, you have to have other nutrients as well." Rachel didn't bother to wonder what nutrients meant, half the words the people said to her here made no sense at all. All she knew was that Bruce was pushing the yellow rubber in front of her again. She nearly leapt out of his chair when Bruce gently took hold of his chin and turned her face so she was looking Bruce in the eye.

"Rachel do you understand what I'm saying?" The question was met with silence, Rachel wasn't paying attention though, she was looking over Bruce's shoulder out the large windows that flanked the dining room. A robin was sitting on a tree branch.

Damian sighed and followed the girl's gaze, some of the robins were chirping outside the window. "I don't think she does Father." He announced. "Seeing as John and Mary Grayson spoke Romanian and the Court of Owls spoke primarily French, I would be surprised if she understood any of what you just said." After he had said his piece he exited the room, headed for the training gym.

Bruce looked back at Rachel, the girl seemed fascinated by the spring birds. " _Rachel, look at me."_ He said in French. It was transformative, Rachel snapped to attention, her body went stiff as a board and she looked directly at Bruce. Her blue eyes were clouded as a small film of water made them blurry, her face was a picture of hopeless acceptance as if she had expected some terrible thing all along.

"I'm sorry." Bruce said switching back to English a bit panicked at the reaction. He placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder. The girl was tense, coiled tightly like she was prepared to attack. Her eyes still drilling into Bruce's. Blue met Grey.

"Rachel," he said switching to Romanian " _I'm sorry."_

Rachel wasn't listening anymore her mind whirled, he spoke like the nest did. He spoke NEST! How? She had never heard it before nest and it was always followed by orders: kill, blood, sleep, cold, train. That was Nest and it was not like that here, here he was kind and the air was warm and the sun shined and she could almost remember the music and her mother's voice and, and and…

She was hyperventilating now, she thought she was going to wake up, she was going to be back with her Great Grandfather _Bufniţă Stăpân_ Owl Master. She forgot she wasn't breathing, the world got blurry and slowly turned black. As it faded she could have sworn she heard Grandfather laugh.

 **Well, what'd'a think? Please post a review.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own batman, or anything affiliated with DC**

 **Also send me some prompts and I'll try to write something. Just no slash, and keep it teen please.**

 **Have a blessed Day!**


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